< The 2015 All-Europe Research Team

Total appearances: 26

Team debut: 1986

UBS solo analyst Jonathan Leinster repeats in second place. Throughout 2014 the researcher, 45, was bullish on Europe’s tobacco companies, especially as compared with other fast-moving consumer goods names. Although tobacco had underperformed over the previous two years, he predicted last January that the volume declines that had contributed to the sector’s losses would slow down and that regulatory risks that had been perceived as rising would prove largely unfounded. The following month, regional tobacco stocks reached their multiyear lowpoint and turned positive. After trailing Europe’s broad market by 29.9 percentage points during 2012 and 2013, posting just a 2.1 percent increase, the shares outperformed their peers, rising 11.5 percent, in 2014 through October, when Leinster discontinued coverage in preparation for his departure from the firm. After more than 20 years at UBS and 15 straight appearances on this roster on its behalf — a track record that makes him one of the most frequently recognized analysts in the 30-year history of Institutional Investor’s All-Europe Research Team — Leinster has moved on. In January he joined London-based investment bank Panmure Gordon & Co. His clients will surely miss what one describes as Leinster’s “strong research pieces and special studies,” as well as his “good accessibility.”